4 mobile garbage facilities turned over to barangays to boost waste segregation

By Jason B. Neola NAGA CITY --- The Solid Waste Management Office (SWMO) of this city has been continuously pursuing a novel project that makes the disposal and collection of garbage in the barangays more convenient, organized and efficient. This includes the installation of materials recovery facilities (MRFs) in the barangays, from which most of the city’s garbage are collected from while these MRFs help to minimize the residual wastes that should have been destined to the city’s dumpsite by as much as 50%. RA 9003, otherwise known as “The Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000” reinforces the role of the local government units down to the barangay level in the segregation and collection of solid wastes. In pursuance of this, the city government has armed the city’s 27 barangays with more mobile Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs). Last Monday (July 16), just after the flag ceremony at city hall, 4 mobile Material Recovery Facilities (MRF) were turned over to Barangay Tinago, Del Rosario, Concepcion Grande and Concepcion Pequeña. Engr. Joel Martin, SWMO chief, said the establishment of MRF in the barangays is expected to help the city achieve more efficiency in waste segregation. “We have a very poor compliance rate on waste segregation. The SWMO found out that the entire city has only 20 to 33 percent segregation efficiency,” according to Martin. The construction of stationary MRF costs about P50,000 each while the price of the trailer-type has an estimated amount of more or less P85,000 each. The mobile MRF are to be installed in barangays that are situated in commercial or business districts but which do not have sufficient spaces to accommodate permanent MRF like Dinaga, Tabuco, Peñafrancia, and San Francisco. “Before the Peñafrancia Fiesta this year, we will see to it that all the city’s 27 barangays are operating their own MRFs,” says Martin. As part of intensive information and education campaign, billboards will be put up in the city’s rural areas and commercial districts like CBD I and II to underscore the importance of waste segregation and indicate the specific days and time or schedule of garbage collection in a specific area or zone. Moreover, the city has also purchased new plastic garbage bins that are now installed along the city’s major roads. Unlike the old sets of garbage bins, which is green and orange in color (for biodegradables and non-biodegradable waste, respectively), the new sets include plastic bins in red color which are intended for household hazardous wastes and electronic wastes that contain mercury, lead, cadmium, and other lethal materials.